Four were killed in three different incidents in the port city of Karachi and the fifth in the northwestern city of Peshawar, on the second day of a nationwide three-day drive against the disease, which is endemic in Pakistan.

All of the victims were Pakistanis working with a UN-backed programme to eradicate polio.

Sagheer Ahmed, the health minister for Sindh province said he had ordered a halt to the anti-polio drive in the city in the wake of the shootings.

These killings come on the heels of previous incidents:

On Monday, police said a gunman killed a volunteer for the World Health Organization’s anti-polio campaign was shot dead on the city outskirts in Gadap Town.

Earlier in July 2012, a local paramedic associated with the polio vaccination was shot dead and a World Health Organisation doctor, Fosten Dido, from Ghana along with his driver were wounded in two separate attacks in the Sohrab Goth area.

WHO, a partner in government efforts to eradicate the disease, suspended vaccination activities in part of Pakistan’s largest city in July after a spate of bloody shootings.

The Times article tells us that the Pentagon notified Congress of the release of funds to Pakistan on December 7, just a week after the Afridi hunger strike started on November 30. Is Afridi still in Peshawar Central Jail or has he been quietly released and removed from the country as part of the normalization of US-Pakistan relations?

“…Despite the negative perceptions, the government has pressed ahead with a large polio vaccination campaign, usually conducted in three-day spurts involving tens of thousands of health workers who administer medicine to children under 5…”

“…For Pakistan’s beleaguered progressives, the attack on female health workers was another sign of how the country’s extremist fringe would stoop to attack the vulnerable and minorities.

“Ahmadis, Shias, Hazaras, Christians, child activists, doctors, anti-polio workers — who’s next on the target list, Pakistan?” asked Mira Hashmi, a lecturer in film studies at the Lahore School of Economics, in a post on Twitter…”

@FrankProbst: Panetta clearly violated #4. He did so in a spectacularly stupid fashion, as well.

I also agree with #1. Going down this path in the first place was a horrible decision that guaranteed that murders like those we saw today would happen.

I’m more sanguine on the money going to Pakistan. I’m beginning to come around to the belief that the current regime in Pakistan is realizing that there are some policy aspects where their interests align with working to calm things down in Afghanistan. I am very much in favor of any moves of that nature that can be taken.

Funny how the larger geopolitical currents are left out of the dawn article, and instead you get “OMG uncivilized savages in failed state killing medical workers for funsies” Instead of ‘High ranking US government agent selectively declassifies identities of assets, who are then arrested by their governments for treason, or killed by vigilantes.’

If they prosecuted Kiriakou and Manning for doing far less damage to whatever-they-think-we’re-doing in Pakistan, why shouldn’t Panetta be investigated and charged for doing actual damage to actual humanitarian projects, for which we mostly likely a major source of funds?

PJ Evans: You’re absolutely right, and you might include Assange and others in that group as well. (I suppose you already have.) What we have seen is that whistleblowers who disclose official criminality or wrongdoing are prosecuted despite the government’s failure and/or inability to show that it suffered harm from the disclosure, while higher-ups who reveal and disseminate classified information- e.g., for political advantage- where the disclosure causes, or may cause, death or harm, are given a pass.